Corporate Only

Quality, stability, and predictability are the hallmarks of Reinhart Partners' fixed income management philosophy.

We believe that successful fixed income management is a product of maintaining a conservative discipline that does not take undue risks in pursuit of yield, but rather selectively takes on moderate risk exposures when the risk/reward tradeoff for that exposure is favorable.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to predict short-term movements in interest rates. Therefore, Reinhart Partners portfolios' durations will not substantially deviate from the duration of the underlying benchmark, and we will not adjust portfolio durations based on cyclical factors affecting interest rates.

We will allow portfolios' durations and exposures to different parts of the Treasury yield curve to differ slightly from their benchmarks based on longer-term secular factors and interest rate trends.

Bullet Bonds Have The Most Favorable Structure Risk/Reward Profile Among Corporates

In most cases, corporate and U.S. government agency bonds with call features do not provide sufficient additional yield above bullet bonds from the same issuers over longer time horizons, and so they are not included.

Process

We maintain a conservative discipline that does not take undue risks in pursuit of yield.

Many factors must be considered when building an optimal portfolio. Our fixed income team uses the macroeconomic landscape, relative value between sectors, and issue level risk/reward analysis as inputs to make portfolio decisions such as portfolio duration, sector contribution to duration, yield curve positioning and structure exposure.

Top down analysis

Macroeconomic
Landscape

Sector Relative
Value

Bottom up analysis

Assess
Credit Risk

Issue Level
Risk/Reward

Evaluating the Macroeconomic Landscape

Expectations of changes in the macroeconomic environment are the prime determinant of interest rates, credit spreads, structure spreads and yield curve shape. Our fixed income team is constantly evaluating trends in GDP growth, employment, inflation, manufacturing, consumer income and spending, and other economic data to position our portfolios to take advantage of these trends.

Sector Relative Value

A key component to a portfolio's total return is the duration and weighting of each sector relative to the index. Determining relative value between sectors allows us to adjust sector contributions to duration in different market environments to maximize total return potential.

Credit Risk Evaluation - Methodology

The first step in assessing the value of company's debt offerings is to objectively determine the amount of risk represented by that offering. We employ a three-layered approach to credit risk assessment and management.

Three-Layered Approach

Credit Ratings:Our holdings are concentrated in securities rated A to AAA by at least one rating agency. Though the major rating agencies have not proven themselves to be a completely reliable source of forward looking assessments of risk, their ratings matter and must be considered.

Flag Scores:We maintain a database that tracks bond, equity and CDS prices. We use sudden or significant changes in these to alert us that the market perceives a significant change in credit risk.

Identify Potential Causes of Financial Distress:Using company filings/statements, sell-side research, news articles as well as industry and economic data, we develop an understanding of industry risks that may cause cash flows to be insufficient to service debt or the value of assets to be insufficient to support liabilities.

Determine Level of Exposure:Once we understand the potential causes of financial distress, we then determine how much of a negative outcome would be needed to actually cause financial distress for a given credit.

Assess Likelihood of Sufficiently Negative Outcome:After establishing levels of exposure, we estimate the likelihood of different severities of negative outcomes and use this to develop an overall likelihood of financial distress.

Credit Risk/Reward Assessment

To be considered for our clients portfolios, a security must offer returns sufficient to compensate for any incremental credit risk relative to other investment options. To make this determination, we compare our risk assessment with the reward (spread) being offered in the market. A credit will be included in the portfolio if this assessment shows a favorable risk/reward balance.